1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, to a message transmission system for making an efficient operation of electronically transmitted messages or procedures at general offices and to a message transmission status advising system enabling the execution of its objects.
2. Related Art
As one of the message transmission systems, the system disclosed in Pat. Disclosure No. S62-25373 (filed in 1987) is an example of a conventional system. FIG. 37 is a block diagram showing its structure where 301 is an input device for electronic slips, 302 is a circular controller, 303 is a memory unit and 305 is an approval operation device. FIG. 38 shows details of the memory unit 303 where "a circular path table for classified slips" and "a presence/absence table for a individual approve" are provided. The circular path table for classified slips memorizes a path of the slip circular approver and also a deputy approver (sub) when a circular approver (main) is not present. The presence/absence of the approver can be known by "the presence/absence table for individual approver". Thus, when the electronic slip of classification AA is input from the electronic slip input device 301, the circular controller 302 refers "the circular path table for classified slips" within the memory unit 303 and recognizes this slip as being circularly approved by the approvers in the order of A.fwdarw.B.fwdarw.C.fwdarw.D. Then, the circular controller 302 refers "the presence/absence table for individual approver" within the memory unit 303 and judges if this slip can be circulated to the approvers in the order of A.fwdarw.B.fwdarw.C.fwdarw.D. As approvers B and C are absent in this example, F being the deputy approver for B and G being the deputy approver for C are requested to be present from the list of sub approvers for the slip AA in "the circular path table for classified slips" and the slip AA is circulated via the corrected path of approvers in the order of A.fwdarw.F.fwdarw.G.fwdarw.D.
However, in the prior example described above, the circular path was determined at the start of approval of the slip circular so that no necessary step was given in case "the presence/absence table for individual approver" was changed during the circulation and there remained a problem of the system structure being not good enough to determine a circular path without approval-waiting.
Furthermore, deputies for the circular approvers were also controlled for centralizing in the memory unit 303 and there was not much flexibility in changing approvers and designating a deputy's deputy freely.
Further, although the circular path without the approval-waiting could be determined automatically at the start of the slip circular approval, there are disadvantages such as a transmitter being unable to see an actual circulation status of the slips.
Taking the above into consideration, it is an object of this invention to provide a message transmission system which enables a flexible distribution of information between the original and deputy approvers and makes transmitters possible to check transmission speed when transmitting information such as circulars and messages requiring confirmation to a person in charge.